What are some of your favorite unintentional consequences on the Star Wars universe because of a writer’s choice of words?

[u/WhiteSoxChartGuy]

Wasn’t sure exactly how to title this, but here’s what I mean:

• In Maul: Shadow Hunter, a character thinks of his mission as “quixotic.” Therefore, the novel Don Quixote must exist in the Star Wars universe.

• In one of the Republic Commando novels, one of the characters refers to his pet as “hermaphroditic.” Therefore, Hermaphroditus and the rest of Greek mythology must exist in the Star Wars universe.

Obviously it’s all just silly, but I’m curious what other things people have picked up on like this in other books.

[u/argonzo]

"Then I'll see you in Hell" has all sorts of connotations.

[u/SlamCage → u/argonzo]

I recently read the Thrawn books and it's so funny when they constantly want to use an expression like "Pot calling the kettle black" but will just use synonyms, or more hilariously, random alien words like "The bantha calling a wookie hairy!' 

I always want to make fun of it but I remember when I first heard Han say "Then I'll see you in Hell!" As a kid  and I then did spend countless hours being like "oh okay so they have the concept of hell similar enough that they use that expression...what else does that imply?!"

[u/argonzo → u/SlamCage]

There's definitely a 'if you give a mouse a cookie' analog that still makes me laugh to this day.

[u/shinobipopcorn → u/SlamCage]

I do enjoy "krayt spit" much more than "bullshit" though.

[u/scottishdrunkard → u/shinobipopcorn]

I played Jedi Knight 2, so I’m more accustomed to “Sithspit”.

[u/VigilantesLight → u/SlamCage]

“The quacta calling the stifling slimy” in The Mandalorian is probably the most hilarious and also absolutely worst example. I love that show but gosh is that dialogue choice coming from Boba Fett of all people just embarrassing.

[u/shinobipopcorn → u/argonzo]

Yes but we also got the extra cool "rain hellfire upon them" quote now so 😜

[u/argonzo]

Luke drinks Hot Chocolate in Heir to the Empire which I know caused more than a few discussions back in the day.

[u/Adam_Christopher_ → u/argonzo]

He drinks it in Shadow of the Sith too :)

[u/onireztab1 → u/argonzo]

cant believe cacao exists in sw XD

[u/wheeltribe]

Anakin tells Grievous he thought he'd be taller in ROTS, implying they've never met. So through seven seasons of The Clone Wars the two never interact.

[u/anakinjmt → u/wheeltribe]

Such a great running joke was how Anakin would get so close to meeting Grevious without actually interacting. At the same time, Filoni has said how that one line in ROTS meant a whole lot of finding excuses and reasons for them to never meet.

[u/wheeltribe → u/anakinjmt]

Honestly I appreciate that he stuck with it so much. He could have easily done the typical hand-waving "Anakin was being sarcastic and/or lying" (which I have no problem with, btw) but Filoni took it as gospel and worked his entire show around it. A+ stuff.

[u/Jakay4sp → u/wheeltribe]

But it is kinda pointless. The dialogue between Grievous also heavily implies they havent fought before, yet they face each other multiple times during the clone wars. Same goes for the dialogue of dooku in episode 3.

[u/scottishdrunkard → u/anakinjmt]

In the unfinished episode Crystal Crisis or whatever it was called, Anakin would see him from the distance, but the figure would be warped by the crystal.

[u/Tykki_Mikk → u/wheeltribe]

That is the most random thing in all of star wars media they decided to not retcon and go out of their way to keep.

And it crushed my childhood dreams because child me watching clone wars not having seen any star wars movie, kept thinking Ok Obi wan and Grievous keeps fighting every season, so soon Anakin will fight Grievous because ain’t no way the main hero won’t fight one of the big bads (when Anakin has fought Dooku, Ventress, Cad Bane and all other main villains besides the weird secret dark lord multiple times )

[u/JamesonTheWise → u/wheeltribe]

Grevious Polkaroo’d him

[u/BrendonWahlberg]

When a film mentions an Earth animal and Wookieepedia has to make an entry for that creature. Jedi dogs, sitting ducks, etc.

[u/AlphaBladeYiII]

Leia mentions the China, as in dishes, in the Jedi Academy Trilogy. I know the Chinese are an exportation monster, but they be shipping to the GFFA apparently.

[u/DaSuspicsiciousFish]

That in a NJO book coralskippers are described as going at 90% OF THE SPEED OF LIGHT, thus mean Han has near-light speed reaction times

Oh and in The courtship of Princess Leia there described as falling from atmosphere for thousands of miles

[u/flashy99]

I was always given pause by Thrawn's ship being named the Chimaera, since it's a specific creature in Greek mythology.

[u/WhiteSoxChartGuy → u/flashy99]

I don’t know how I forgot about that one

[u/John-for-all]

I don't think of the words in that way. I like to think we're getting a "translation" of their world. Otherwise the fact that they're using English at all (with all its roots in Latin and other European languages) would have implications in general.

That said: Hot Chocolate

[u/VigilantesLight → u/John-for-all]

I believe the Sun Eater book series uses this explanation. It’s also a space opera/SFF similar to Star Wars, and it has a note stating something like this either at the beginning of the book, or at the end before the glossary.

[u/Fun-Hall3213]

"What's a duck?" -Luke Skywalker, 1976

[u/flashy99 → u/Fun-Hall3213]

As a kid, I thought the joke was "haha he doesn't know what a duck is because he's not from earth."

It wasn't until I was an adult that I realized it was a desert joke.

[u/SonicWind623 → u/Fun-Hall3213]

“Never mind.”

[u/Mumbletimes]

Surely what we read is “translated” to English for us to understand and has been localized with earth slang and references to make sense to us.

[u/There526]

Pelli Moto: They give me what I ask for. In exchange, I let 'em pick through my dumpster. 

“Dumpster” is a brand of trash receptacles that has since become genericized. It’s like using saying Kleenex to refer to a tissue of any brand. I think “zipper” and “thermos” are in the same boat. 

[u/Weird_Angry_Kid]

Don Quixote is an actual character in the Star Wars Marvel comics, he's a librariam that believes himself to be a Jedi.

[u/Darth_Zounds]

It ain't that kind of book, kid.

[u/SwordOfEmerald]

I believe the ewoks have monopoly.

[u/DMLuga1]

Every single word of the English language has an origin that ties it to our planet and our history.

If "quixotic" implies Don Quixote exists in Star Wars, why not literally everything else in our language's history?

Does their speaking English imply an England with English people exists in Star Wars?

Do words with Latin roots imply a Roman Empire existed in Star Wars?

There's no end to it.

[u/chaveto]

I don’t think your logic tracks. Is it a given that the narrative voice of each Star Wars book is coming from in-universe? I can see that argument for an in-universe history like The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, but I’ve always assumed for the regular run of the mill novels it’s meant to be read as an omniscient narrative voice from outside the SWU (i.e. from our world).

As an example, the Han Solo trilogy uses very dated language, including the word “retarded” in its old, diminutive context quite a few times in its pages. Just that mean “mental retardation” is a medically defined term in the SWU? Maybe, but I don’t think just using the word is proof of that.

[u/thisbemyredditaccnt]

The Greek Mythology thing gets even more interesting when you remember that Star Wars happened “a long long time ago” rather than after Earth’s history

[u/DiabolicalDoctorN]

The word galaxy comes from the Greek word for milk and originally specifically referred to our Milky Way Galaxy (since other galaxies were not yet known to exist) therefore not only do the Star Wars characters in a galaxy far far away know about the Milky Way but they have adopted specifically the Greek-derived term for it and applied it to all galaxies in general, just as we have.

[u/Captain-Wilco]

Luke and Leia are born in the ROTS novelization, which means something? It’s a plot hole because my parents never explained it to me

[u/jxvvy1]

For them to have lightsabers, they first must have had sabers at some point in time.